Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common chronic liver diseases worldwide. Around the world, the prevalence of NAFLD has now increased to 30%, and it is expected to continue to increase [Younossi Z et al., Hepatology. 2023].

One of the risks of NAFLD is its ability to progress to other more serious conditions such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, making it a significant global health challenge. This has led to the development of many compounds that attempt to target NAFLD/NASH. Unfortunately, there are still many limitations to the success of these compounds in clinical trials. One of the major factors that makes drug development difficult is the dearth of animal models that accurately replicate human pathophysiology and the lack of clinical correlation among NAFLD/NASH models.

Our NASH model, called STAM™ model, is capable of evaluating both the degree of fibrosis in the liver as well as the NAFLD Activity Score, which are the primary endpoints in NASH clinical trials. To date, we have conducted over 600 drug efficacy evaluation studies in this model, and many of those compounds have successfully gone on to be tested in clinical trial. Approximately 40% of the companies conducting clinical trials for NASH have experience using our STAM™ model. These results of NASH clinical trials suggest that our model has a high clinical correlation.

Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in our STAM™ model, or if you would just like to learn more about the services we offer here at SMC Laboratories.